Introducing AWS IAM

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) enables you to manage access to AWS services securely. Using IAM, you can create and manage AWS users, groups, roles, and permissions with fine-grained control.

Users are entities that represent a person or service that can interact with AWS. Groups are collections of users, simplifying permission management. Each user can belong to multiple groups, with group-based permissions streamlining access management.

Roles are used to grant permissions to entities that you trust. Policies are documents that define permissions and can be attached to users, groups, or roles. Interestingly, managed policies can be reused across multiple entities.

IAM allows granular permissions for different AWS resources. You can define conditions such as time, IP address, or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) requirements, enhancing security by adhering to the principle of least privilege.

IAM includes tools for monitoring and enforcing security such as access advisors, credential reports, and IAM Access Analyzer. These tools help identify unused permissions, audit service credentials, and analyze resource sharing.

IAM supports identity federation, allowing users to authenticate via external systems like corporate directories. It also enables delegation by which users can assume roles to carry out specific tasks without sharing credentials.

Did you know? IAM supports advanced features like service-linked roles, which are pre-defined by AWS services and intended for service access. Also, IAM integrates with AWS Organizations for SCPs (Service Control Policies) to manage permissions across accounts.